Final Project — History 2100 — Fall 2014

1. By: Alyssa Stefanic

2.  I would like to explore the call for women in
ship building as men were being shipped
overseas to defend America in The Second
World War to only be laid off for their return.
We will see that this work was different than
what women were doing before while still
maintaining a normal family life at home. By
the end I’d like to show the impact of what
this time period had on women, and the war
they battled on the home front.

3.  The consistent binary was that women either
worked for wages or cared for their families
(Marcellus).
Women with young children were asked to
stay home to raise their families, there was a
prejudice against them when it came to
hiring new workers (Yesil).

4.  “Women entered better-paying and new
kinds of occupations and increased their
participation in the labor force during the
Second World War,”(Yesil).
We must focus on the word increase and
recognize that women did work prior to
World War II.

5.  The Second World War required the
employment of millions of new female
workers and reallocation of those who
already had been working for major war
industries (Yesil).
 Mothers were no longer discriminated against
when labor shortages reached record highs
(Yesil).

6.  Kaiser, the Ship Building
Company in Portland,
Oregon was open to
Women a few months
before the entrance of
the war in 1941.
 Women were in what
they called “Women’s
Jobs,” as clerks and
nurses.
 It wasn’t until men left
to fight overseas that
Women had stepped up
their work (Marcellus).

7.  Recruited women during the war.
 Thousands of women fled to industrial sites.
 Not only did they build ships, but they made gun
powder, bombs, and even airplanes.
 Bo’s ‘n’ Whistle Shipyard had 40,000 women
employed (Marcellus).
 “Women enjoyed the jobs that were previously
reserved for men,” (Friedman).

8.  Although Women were
taking men's jobs, they
were still “typed,”
where female workers
focused on jobs with
repetitiveness.
 Cartoon’s poked fun at
Woman as outsiders in
the Male World. Women
were described as frail,
and they were too
worried about breaking
a nail (Marcellus.)

9.  Cartoons soon after depicted women as the
“Fair Sex.”
 These Cartoon’s helped men accept them.
 "Housewives who for years have been
drilling holes in their husband's pocket-books
ought to make excellent drill
operators,“ (Marcellus).
 It was mostly white middle class women
that went to work, they began to develop
relationships and alliances to help the
efforts against the war (Daniels).
 In 1944, 19 Million women were in the
workforce, 5 Million of them being new
(Friedman).

10. Women working meant that
they would have the
patriotism, and national duty.
They wanted to be approved
by the men.
 The Government had
businesses extend their hours,
so women could go to work
and still shop after. They also
encouraged prepared food
services (Yesil).

11.  Kaiser Shipyards were the first to offer childcare
do to their high percentage of women.
 They were promised to have “exciting daily
schedules.”
 It was a place for kids to learn and play while their
mothers went to work (Marcellus).
 Unfortunately they say this period of time led to
Juvenile Delinquency.

12.  The government decided that a woman’s first
priority was their traditional role as a
homemaker (Marcellus).
 Government propaganda had women doing
their part during the war effort, which
implied their jobs were only temporary and
they were to “gracefully withdraw” when the
war was over (Yesil).
 Fact or Myth?: Women happily went back to
their role as a housewife when they came
home .

14.  The married women was
first to lose her job.
 Single women continued
to work, but went back
to “women’s jobs,”
(Rosenzweig 586)
 Women’s jobs were
considered light
manufacturing, retail
trade, clerical work, and
health and education
(Rosenzweig 586).

15. Many women went back home after the War
ended, but many did stay at work.
They entered back into women’s jobs, and
continued to fight for equality.
“The idea that the Second World War was a
milestone in female employment ‘places too
much weight on the role of a single
unpredictable event’ in changing women’s
roles and behaviors,” (Yesil).
It may not have been a milestone, but it
definitely helped with how far we have come
today.

16. THE END

17. Daniels, Arlene K. "The Rise of Public Woman: Woman's Power and Woman's
Place in the United States, 1630-1970." Labor History 34.4 (1993):
545-46.
Friedman, Barbara. ""The Soldier Speaks": Yank Coverage of Women and
Wartime Work." American Journalism 22.2 (2005): 63-82. Web.
Marcellus, Jane. "Bo's 'n's Whistle: Representing "Rosie the Riveter" on the
Job." American Journalism 22.2 (2005): 83-103
Rosenzweig, Roy, Nelson Lichtenstein, Joshua Brown, and David Jaffee. Who
Built America? 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2008.
Print.
Yesil, Bilge. "‘Who Said This Is a Man's War?’: Propaganda, Advertising
Discourse and the Representation of War Worker Women during
the Second World War." Media History 10.2 (2004): 103-17.